The Best Diet To Get Ripped
Are you looking to get on a diet to get ripped as fast as possible? Studies have shown, that a person following optimal nutrition is going to gain results almost twice as fast as someone training the same amount but neglecting nutrition.
If you truly have the dedication to lose weight while bulking, you are at the right place here.
In this article, I'm going to explain to you some of the most common myths around nutrition and how to create a diet yourself to build muscle mass without getting fat.
Common Nutrition Lies & Myths
You might have heard, that you need to have a bulking and cutting phase before. People often even say, that you cant lose fat while gaining muscle.
Fortunately, this is entirely wrong!
Let me explain why:
The thought of losing weight while gaining muscle doesn't make sense at first sight right?
I mean you need to be in a caloric deficit to lose fat while being in a caloric surplus to gain muscle.
Luckily, this is only partly true, as you do not need to be in a caloric surplus in order to gain weight. The answer to the equation is nitrogen balance. Nitrogen comes from amino acids, which you can find in protein as you might know.
This means that as long you are in a positive Nitrogen balance you can easily gain muscle. If you want to find out more about this concept, you can read my article on how to lean bulk.
Guidelines To Get Ripped
So let's get into the most important guidelines that you need to follow if you want to get ripped as quickly as possible.
Protein Intake
By far one of the most important aspects of a diet to get ripped is that you consume an adequate amount of protein. Studies have shown, that 1.5 - 2g per kg of your body weight is optimal, since taking more protein than that will only lead to digestive problems. As an example, you should eat 120-140g of protein per day if you weigh 70kg.
Besides the amount of protein, it is also important to eat the right type of protein. Try to consume all the 8 essential amino acids each day, which you can mainly find in animal sources of protein.
Another tip is to eat the right type of protein at the right time. The best way to illustrate this is by explaining the difference between whey protein & casein.
Both types of protein primarily come from dairy products while they both include all the essential amino acids.
But the primary difference between the two is digestion time.
Whey protein (which you can often find in protein shakes etc) takes less time for your body to be consumed, which is why it makes more sense to consume it right before/after an intense workout.
Casein, on the other hand, takes a long time to be consumed, which is why it makes more sense to eat it before going to bed so that your body has a constant protein supply throughout the night.
Caloric Intake
Equally important to your protein intake, it is important to have the right caloric intake. Especially if you tend to gain weight (both muscle & fat) quickly, you need to respect the caloric deficit.
If you want to lose a lot of fat quickly, you should be in a high caloric deficit, while if your goal is to maintain your current body fat it is okay to stay with your recommended caloric intake.
To find out the right caloric intake you can use a calorie calculator.
Know Your Metabolism
Throughout the years, you have probably noticed weather it is hard for you to gain muscle mass & fat or if it is easy. People with a slow metabolism should be more careful with their carb & fat intake.
On the other hand if you have an extremely fast metabolism, you can be in a caloric surplus without gaining fat.
Food To Avoid
Especially if you want to stay lean while bulking there are some foods that you should avoid as much as you can.
Trans Fats (fried food)
Trans fats can be harming to your cholesterol levels, which will "confuse" your metabolism. They are found in oils used for frying and should be avoided in order to stay lean.
Food with a high Glycemic Index
It's not a problem if you haven't heard of the Glycemic Index yet, but it simply states how quickly a food is going to be transferred into glucose. The higher the glycemic index the faster the food is digested, while 100 would be glucose itself. Unless you are right before a workout, it is not going to be necessary to eat foods with a high glycemic index, as they will increase your blood sugar to quickly. Read this if you feel like you need to gain a better understanding of the term.
Diet Hacks
Now let's get into some more exciting parts of this article! As you might have noticed, I'm not giving you a straight-up set meal plan, as my aim is to make you understand how to do one yourself. It is a lot harder to follow a set diet if you don't even know why or how it works. But don't worry as I've integrated some sample meals in the next section.
So how can you "hack" your diet?
In fact, there are ways, to speed up your metabolism, growth hormones, etc by either doing a specific type of exercise or eating the right food.
How to increase Testosterone (Men only)
By doing HIIT training, you are going to produce lactic acid since the exercise happens in an anaerobic state. The production of lactic acid has been shown to increase testosterone levels in male athletes, which is related to increased muscle growth!
How to increase Fat Burning Hormones
One of the most natural ways to increase fat loss is by eating more fiber. Recent studies have shown, that increased fiber intake leads to an increase in Adiponectin, which is an essential hormone for fat loss. Furthermore, fiber is going to help you to stabilize your glucose levels right after a meal, which is another huge benefit.
Those two ways are probably the easiest and most natural ways to increase muscle growth & fat loss, which you should integrate when you want to get ripped.
Sample Meal Plan
When creating your meal plan, you need to consider the grams of protein that you need. Furthermore, details such as a post-workout whey protein shake can affect how fast you gain lean muscle. One of the best ways to get ripped is to track your macronutrients, which you can do the best by using an app called MyFitnessPal (the free version gives you more than enough options).
Sample Day:
Breakfast: Oat Meal, low-fat quark & honey
Snack 1: Post Workout Whey Protein Shake
Lunch: Chicken Breast + Egg + Brown Rice
Snack 2: Peanuts/Almonds
Dinner: Salmon + Green Beans + Potatoe
Snack 3: Smoothie with Low Fat Quark/Skyr + Berries + Milk
Conclusion
Remember to eat enough food that is high in protein. Also, post-workout meals containing protein that your body can quickly access is important. But if you follow all the steps above you are going to gain the results that you desire!
Please share this article with your friends if it was helpful to you! Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section if there are any unanswered questions left.
Stay motivated & train with a purpose!
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